Professor Tom Melham
University of Oxford

Computers and the software that animates them touch our lives in countless ways. They control our cars, trains and aeroplanes; realise modern systems of healthcare and power lifesaving medical devices; drive the mechanisms of vital public services; run our economy. They entertain us and – for many – are indispensable foundations of our social lives. Yet the design of computer systems remains error prone and vulnerable to malicious attack – with increasingly disastrous potential effect on society and individuals. Has our society passed the point of no return? And what can computer scientists do to protect us?